SME employment trends in the IT sector

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SMEs play a crucial role in most economies, and South Africa is no exception. They are also important contributors to job creation and global economic development. According to the World Bank, SMEs represent about 90% of businesses worldwide, while the International Finance Corporation revealed that roughly 50% to 60% of South Africa’s workforce finds employment within SMEs.

A key challenge SMEs face is finding employees who are a good fit for their business, and who have the skills required to increase efficiency and business growth. Pnet researched the recruitment needs of SMEs over 12 months, and the findings revealed that information technology skills fall within the top five most in-demand skills, alongside skills in finance, business and management, sales and admin, and office and support for SMEs. Pnet’s research also revealed the top three in-demand roles in the SME sector during the same period, namely sales representatives, accountants, and software developers.

Salaries and wages across various sectors and roles differ greatly in South Africa. Pnet analysed jobs with the highest salary offers from September 2022 to September 2023, and the findings revealed that information technology was the second-highest paying job sector in the country, after business and management. Software developers can expect monthly salary offers ranging from R37 000 to R66 000, depending on their years of experience, the software they specialise in, and the job location. As the ‘Silicon Valley’ of South Africa, the Western Cape tends to offer the highest software developer salaries, followed by Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

European research findings reveal that the lack of software development skills is challenging for the SME market, and that a pervasive shortage of digital skills can severely impact SMEs in their efforts to adopt new technologies. Thus, it is essential for SMEs to widen the skill set and competencies of existing staff, and to be able to recruit externally when investing in technology.

Despite the need to attract and retain skilled talent, SMEs often face various recruitment challenges such as time-to-hire and the hefty price tag often associated with sourcing suitable candidates.

Specialised online recruitment platforms offer SMEs a range of benefits to help them save both time and money during the hiring process, and find the right candidates for their vacancies. Sourcing candidates directly using smart-matching technology streamlines the hiring process so that SMEs can quickly and directly reach more jobseekers. Sophisticated platforms like Pnet’s online recruitment portal offer a host of easy-to-use tools and features to easily filter and shortlist candidates with the required IT skills from their database of over six million jobseekers. Job ads also get further reach from the 100 million Job Alerts that Pnet sends directly to jobseekers’ inboxes every month.

By going directly to the source of suitable candidates using specialised recruitment platforms like Pnet, SMEs can save up to 60% on their recruitment costs. Pnet’s online recruitment platform uses advanced algorithms and analytics to target job advertisements for the most relevant candidates. This enables recruiters to find quality candidates using locally relevant filters, and even create a talent pool to access when they need to hire for similar roles in the future.

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SME employment trends in the IT sector

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